After Zhu Yuanzhang died, through Jingjing, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di became the emperor. During his reign, both the civilian clique and the military generals represented by Guixun were strengthened. Ming Chengzu Zhu Di established the post of scholar among the civil officials, which is also the re-establishment of the prime minister in disguise. Although the power of the scholars at that time was not great, the civil servants finally had a core of leadership. And a large number of heroes and generals who have suffered from the martyrdom have also joined the ranks of nobles. However, due to the relatively strong Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, the situation in the court was able to remain stable under the balanced confrontation between the civil official group and the military general group represented by Guixun.

However, with the death of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, the balance of strength between the civilian group and the military general group represented by Guixun has been broken, and the power of the civilian officials is getting bigger and bigger, because the civilian officials have mastered the transfer and promotion of military generals through the military department, and the distribution of military salaries through the household department, which has made the military general group represented by Guixun in a weak state. And because, after all, not every emperor is like Zhu Yuanzhang, a model worker among emperors, who can take care of all the big and small affairs of the country. Under such circumstances, Zhu Zhanji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, set up an inner study room, cultivated the eunuchs' ability to read and manage government in the inner study, and used those eunuchs as assistants and secretaries to the emperor. In this way, the eunuch group of the Ming Dynasty rose.

Wang Zhen, who was introduced above, was the first teacher in the inner study at that time, so his influence on Zhu Zhanji, the son of Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji, Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen, was very huge. But Wang Zhen wanted to be a bad eunuch who could make a difference (when Mingyue was big), so he fooled Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen to go to the Mongolian steppe. The Ming army was defeated at Tumubao, and a large number of elites of the Xungui group led by the British Gong Zhang Fu at that time died in this battle, and since then, the status of the Xungui group in the politics of the Ming Dynasty has plummeted. This can be seen from the selection of the queen in the palace. Before the Tumubao Incident, the queens were basically from noble families. After that, it basically came from small private households. Since then, the situation in the court of the Ming Dynasty has basically been a history of the struggle between the civil and eunuch groups.

Here, the author would like to correct some misunderstandings about the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty.

The first misconception is that the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty were all rich and unlearned. The first half of this sentence is basically true, and the second half of the sentence is completely wrong. In the Ming Dynasty, the cultural level of the eunuchs who were written by the priests was very high (Wei Zhongxian was an exception, he was illiterate), and some of them had reached the level of lifting people and jinshi. And their level of governance is also very high, it is no exaggeration to say that they are completely a group of ruling elites at that time. In the palace, a group of young eunuchs are selected to study in the inner study every year. And their teacher was a Confucian who was invited from the Hanlin Academy. After a very strict cultural education, they also have to go to various yamen for internships to understand the operation and rules of each yamen. Only eunuchs with such qualifications can enter the celebrant eunuch as a eunuch.

Therefore, if you just look at the level of governing the country, the level of the eunuch group is the highest, and it surpasses the civil officials who only know how to study hard and become officials through the imperial examination. Of course, the level of civil service governance that can be achieved as a university scholar is also very high. There are even some civil officials whose level is outstanding, such as Zhang Juzheng, for example, Shen Mo (I like "Official Residence One Product" very much). On the contrary, the lowest level of governance is the emperor who has no social experience. Emperor Chongzhen alienated the eunuch group because of Wei Zhongxian, and he frequently changed ministers, and he could not get the support of civil officials, he just relied on his tattered level of governance, dragging the broken car of the Ming Dynasty to run in the mud, how could this car not be dragged apart? This was also a reason for the fall of the Ming Dynasty. To tell the truth, if Emperor Chongzhen completely handed over the country to any eunuch or a scholar in the cabinet, the process of the demise of the Ming Dynasty would be greatly slowed down, or even not destroyed.

The second misconception is that the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty had a lot of power. This is not entirely true. The Ming Dynasty's celebrant was a bit similar to the current Central General Office. The orders issued by the eunuchs of the celebrant must also be carried out by the civil officials. If the civil servants don't enforce it, they don't have much to do. Because, at most, the eunuchs control the secret services of the factory guard, and they can send these agents to arrest disobedient civil officials, but they have no way to get these agents to go to the government or county to carry out a specific government affairs. It's a bit like the current court enforcement. If there is a lawsuit filed by a civil prosecutor and the court decides that the organ loses the case, but the organ refuses to enforce it, then the court has nothing to do.

There is also the fact that the power of the eunuchs comes entirely from the emperor who trusts them. If a certain eunuch is trusted, then he must be prosperous, but once he loses the trust of the emperor, then he will immediately fall into the abyss. For example: Liu Jin during the Zhengde period, as soon as Emperor Zhengde gave an order, Liu Jin was cut by a thousand knives. Another example is Wei Zhongxian, Emperor Chongzhen gave an order, and Wei Zhongxian was so frightened that he hanged himself. Eunuchs had great power in the Han and Tang dynasties. At this time, their eunuchs could put the emperor under house arrest, manipulate the change of the throne, control the Imperial Forest Army, and kill the ministers.

So what are the characteristics of civil officials in the late Ming Dynasty? There are many works that have already been introduced, so here is a brief introduction:

First of all, the civil servants are very politically skillful. Because they are basically from the imperial examination, chewing on words is their strength;

Second, the civil servants acted as political spokesmen for the local big landowners and big businessmen, so they tried to maintain certain policies that were not good for the state, but good for the big landowners and big businessmen. For example: low taxes on business, or even no taxes; tax exemption for the gentry group; sea ban, etc.;

Third, the civil officials in the late Ming Dynasty formed political groups because of their relationships with teachers and students, fellow villagers, and the same year, and the representative of them was the Donglin Party. These groups not only fought with the eunuch group, but also fought among themselves. So much so that no matter whether a policy is beneficial to the country or not, as long as the other side is in favor of it, I will oppose it, and this kind of right and wrong is not distinguished;

Zuihou, because the civil officials are basically famous local scholars, their remarks are very accepted by the common people. Moreover, their articles will also be widely disseminated, so they control public opinion.

The nobles of the late Ming Dynasty basically lost any power. Except for certain specific occasions, special people. For example, the Xu family of Wei Guogong in Nanjing is the garrison of Nanjing City. Still, they possessed great wealth and retained certain privileges. On the contrary, those military generals, because they held the army in their hands, and the central government of the Ming Dynasty could not pay the full military salary, which led them to rob the private wealth or develop their own financial resources, forming a warlordization. Such as Wu Sangui and Zuo Liangyu. Of course, the protagonist of this book, Wu Shigong, will also be like this in the future (friends who like to dominate the world and war content can be happy, there will be many wonderful war scenes in this book in the future).

(After so much verbosity, isn't it a bit of a taste of watching "Hundred Lectures"?) Let's get down to business. ）

After arriving at the Wei Mansion, Wei Zhongxian told his little eunuchs to prepare wine and food, and then came to the study with Xue Lian. After the two of them sat down, seeing Xue Lian's elated look, Wei Zhongxian asked with a smile, "Xue Hou, what's so happy?" ”

Xue Lian nodded with a smile and said, "Duke Wei, the disaster relief matter is finally a bit eyebrow-raising, and Ben Hou already has a plan. ”

"Oh? Let's hear it. ”

So, Xue Lian explained the plan discussed in detail to Wei Zhongxian. After listening to the plan, Xue Lian looked at Wei Zhongxian, waiting for him to express some of his opinions. Unexpectedly, Wei Zhongxian frowned tightly and said nothing, as if he was carefully pondering something. After a long while, Wei Zhongxian suddenly slapped his thigh and said, "Okay! Very good! That's great! ”